Coal vs Obama

President Obama did one thing in the 2012 Kentucky presidential primary he didn’t do in 2008-he won it. This time, he won 58% of the vote, although 42% went to uncommitted delegates. Not that that means anything; Obama is the only Democratic candidate for President this year.

That, by the way, was the good news for the Obama camp. The bad news is he lost to uncommitted in about half of Kentucky, and one of the counties that saw him get flayed alive again was our own Pike County.

Yes, here the uncommitted vote took 65% of the vote. But considering how few votes Obama got in the 2008 primary in Pike County, you could say he did pretty well by comparison. Hey, you take your victories where you can.

At least it’s not like West Virginia, where a federal prisoner, Keith Judd, who is serving out a 17-year term in the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institute in Beaumont, Texas got over 42% of the vote against Obama.

Yeah, Obama took a drubbing in the 2008 primary in that state, but to have a federal prisoner run so close this time has to hurt the pride a little.

There was a well thought out analysis of the primary published in the Friday, May 25^th edition of the Appalachian News-Express that covered pretty much every factor that might have had some influence on these outcomes.

Of course, we all know that Obama’s war on coal, as defined by the various coal producers and associations that have been running negative ads against Obama for the better of his first term, had a large impact on how the vote turned out.

Obama’s war as waged by the Environmental Protection Agency has cost this area jobs, according to these ads. Well, no, not according the latest jobs numbers. In both Kentucky and West Virginia, coal jobs are at the highest levels since around 1997.

But we do have a lot to be thankful for in Pike County, or more specifically, in Pikeville. There is the Eastern Kentucky Exposition Center, for instance. We wouldn’t have that if it weren’t for coal, huh?

Not really. It seems that the Exposition Center was on the verge of closing when a deal was struck by the various governmental agencies that ran it to turn it over to the city of Pikeville.

Coal could have contributed enough money to keep the Center afloat by buying the right to name it, but they’d already contributed some $7 million to the University of Kentucky to name the new men’s basketball dorm the Wildcat Coal Lodge. Maybe next time, though.

Well, the city of Pikeville was able to take on the Exposition Center because it has such a progressive government. Their tax base, helped by the coal industry, is what made the difference, huh?

But those jobs in town because of the many construction jobs, on the new Judicial Center, the new building that will house the medical school at the University of Pikeville, and the new additions to the Pikeville Medical Center, have all been aided considerably by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the first major act of the Obama administration.

So maybe the reality is, even if Obama has helped this area, we don’t care. We just don’t like him.

Let the punishment fit the crime

The news media has the unenviable job of not only reporting the news but of dealing with any fallout it might produce.  Fallout, by the way, usually comes in the form of criticism from those who may think the news media has made them look bad.

No government official ever likes to see bad press, and no government official has ever hesitated to launch a preemptive strike against any news source that might shine a light on any of their more nefarious activities. 

Of course, you don’t have to be a national politician to distrust the press.  We’ve had plenty of those in our area who are just as unhappy with the Appalachian News-Express and who’ve been all too willing to let the paper know all about it.

The most recent unhappy office holder to take action, literally this time, was Elkhorn City’s Mayor Mike Taylor, who filed a criminal complaint against News-Express staff writer Ross Coleman because Coleman won’t stop asking him questions.

Of course Coleman won’t stop asking him questions.  It’s his job.  It’s what motivates him as an individual.  In certain circumstances it could even get him recognition by his peers.  And let’s face it, if reporters were jailed for being inquisitive, our prison population, already the world’s largest, would swell to far greater numbers.

In its response to Taylor’s actions, the News-Express published an editorial in which it called on Taylor to resign as Mayor.  With all due respect to those people who publish my drivel, I think this is going a bit too far. 

Yes, Taylor may be trying to intimidate Coleman and his colleagues, but it’s not the most intimidating action ever taken against an employee of the News-Express.

It’s not been too long ago, if you remember, when another Mayor took exception to a story published in the News-Express.  Only this Mayor was a bit more direct in his try at intimidation. 

Instead of bringing criminal charges against any measly newspaper reporters or staff writers, this Mayor took a swing at the editor; popped him right in the nose.

Cooler heads prevailed because the thing was smoothed over rather quickly; the mayor apologized and the editor forgave him.  No calls for any resignation were heard.

In a story published only this past week, the Fiscal Court tried their hands at intimidating a citizen.  And this wasn’t your ordinary citizen, either.  This was Monk Sanders, the one man who makes it his life’s work to bring help to the poor and needy.  And God only knows how much of that there is to do.

Seems Monk had the temerity to question members of the Fiscal Court in some letters to the Editor.  And that made those members of the Fiscal Court mad, mad enough to tell Monk not to be seen around the county with stationary or postage stamps ever again if he wanted the Fiscal Court to help him.

Of course, Monk agreed, because he does need to get the Court to help him in his mission.  It’s too bad he had to give up his right to express his opinion in exchange for this help.  It’s also too bad that our paper didn’t come to his defense as quickly as it did with its own reporter.

No Independents Need Apply

This coming Tuesday, May 22, will be Kentucky’s primary Election Day.  I’m rerunning a column I wrote for last year’s primary because independent voters are still suffering under what I call taxation without enfranchisement.

Way back when, lawmakers in Kentucky proposed to hold elections on even-numbered years only.  That way, the electorate wouldn’t tire themselves out by voting so often.

Well, not all odd-numbered years would be void of elections; just every other odd-numbered year.  Otherwise, the electorate might emulate Rodney Dangerfield’s dog:  It took him two years to teach his dog to sit and then the dog forgot how to stand.

Take away all the odd-year elections and the electorate might forget about Election Day altogether.  So in odd-numbered years, like 2011, we vote for state-wide offices; otherwise, no odd-year elections.

So how has that worked for us?  From here it doesn’t appear to have achieved its goal of getting more of the electorate out on Election Day.  Despite that one one-year break every four years, people are still staying away from the polls in droves.

It would seem our voters are like the ex-leper from Monty Python’s film “The Life of Brian”.  This leper was cleansed by Jesus, but then complained that since he could no longer beg for alms, he now had no trade, whereupon Jesus was said to have told him “There’s just no pleasing some people!”

Okay, so we know what is used to pave the road to h-e-double hockey sticks, don’t we?  Yep, good intentions.  What was forgotten in the rush to get more people out is why more people don’t vote in the opening act in our election years.  Part A is the primary election, where the successful candidate will represent one of the two major parties in the General Election.

But in Kentucky, you have to register as either a Democrat or a Republican.  No Independents need apply.  No, you cannot vote in a Primary Election.  Don’t forget to pay your taxes, though.  The Commonwealth of Kentucky will use part of that to pay the tab so the two major parties can set their slate for November.

That hardly seems fair, now does it?  The Commonwealth of Kentucky will use the Independent voters’ tax money but then disenfranchise them in half of the elections.  So how are Independent voters supposed to work up any enthusiasm for any candidates when they have no say as to who that candidate will be?  It’s like trying to work up fervor for a date whom you’ve never seen and about whom you know nothing.  That doesn’t always work so well, either.

I sometimes get the impression that neither the Democrats nor Republicans are all that anxious to see this scenario changed anytime soon.  Why would they?  They have it made in the shade. If only those who bother to register one way or the other can vote in the primaries, that’s that many fewer voters the candidates need to see to get elected.

Once again, I call on the Commonwealth of Kentucky to open its Primary Elections up to all voters.  The only info the Commonwealth needs is the voters address and precinct.  Those voters could then decide in which party’s primary they will vote when they cast their ballot in May.

A feud revisited

Like most area residents, I’ve always had a passion about the Hatfield and McCoy feud. I've heard about it from the time I was old enough to sit and listen to my elders. No complete story formed in my mind, just the idea that two families had taken an intense dislike to each other and that bloodshed was the result.

I eventually got my hands on a book that more or less explained the whole thing to me. That was a rarity, something that went into detail on local history. That was something that was lacking even in our 7^th grade Kentucky history book.

I even wrote my first research paper in college on the feud. I eventually narrowed the thing down to how the feud got started. This was in Comp 102 at Eastern Kentucky University.

But it was here that I found out just how little was actually written on the feud itself. In all of that school’s mammoth library, I found just three books.

No matter, I wrote an A paper, one that had only one red mark, at the beginning where I used the past tense of the verb to dwell as dwelt. That, I was told, is an archaic form of the verb. Not where I come from, I responded.

The one thing that kept me interested in the feud was the part played by a relative, probably a distant one, but a relative, nonetheless, who went by the name of Bad Frank Phillips.

Bad Frank went into WV after the members of the raiding party that was responsible for killing Alafair McCoy. Now you know you had to be bad to be able to do that. These boys weren’t coming out peaceably, after all.

But knowing all about the feud, and also finding out how widely the feud itself became known in its time always made me want to see this thing on the wide screen.

Well, all of us who have always wanted to see this tragic bit of history acted out as well as it could be have been disappointed in those feeble attempts made so far. Pretty much all you ever saw about the feud was satirical references to it in cartoons and sitcoms.

That may be about to change. I’m pretty sure everybody knows by now that the History Channel is doing a miniseries on the feud and it stars no less than Hollywood legend Kevin Costner.

Now you and I both know that Kevin is not going to halfway do anything, so his portrayal of Devil Anse will be done right.

And while I’m definitely no actor, I would have given my eye tooth to have gotten the role of Bad Frank. I really do believe I was born to play this part. 

But you ought to also know that I found reference to a real movie being developed by Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper, Robert Duvall and Brad Pitt. And if you’ve ever seen Robert Duvall do anything, you know he’s gonna really own the role he’ll play; no doubt Devil Anse again.

At any rate, the History Channel’s version, the miniseries, will begin starting on Memorial Day and will continue for three nights, and I can’t speak for everyone else, but I can’t wait